Page 49 of Demons in My Bed
Okay then…
I watched as he walked away from me and went straight to the sink to get a glass of water. My head rolled to the side, and I saw the other guys standing there with strange expressions.What? Were they jealous?Well, they could fuck off. I’d fucked all four of them in less than twenty-four hours.
“Well, I’m going to have that shower now…” I slid off the table, literally. Grimacing, I turned to see the damage. “Fucking hell.”
“Like my brother said,” Talon piped up. “You are one messy Bun-Bun. Don’t worry, I’ll clean up your love liquids.”
I held up a hand. “Talon. Never say ‘love liquids’ ever again.”
He laughed, grabbing some paper towels and a bottle of cleaning spray. I had a feeling I hadn’t heard the last of that term. I held my head high and attempted to walk with dignity to the bathroom, but heard snickering behind me. I tossed up both middle fingers, because yeah, I was definitely walking like I’d just straddled a strapping oak tree.
After an incredibly long and hot shower, I felt awake and ready to figure out a game plan. Whatever was going on with that guy, Frank, from last night, plus the whole corpse cruise thing... It seemed important. I needed to figure out what kind of shipments they were getting. It was proving difficult to do anything without one of them tailing me though.
A soft tapping drew my focus up to the small, circular window above the toilet. “What the hell?” I waited, and sure enough, it happened again. Someone or something was tapping on the window.
I lowered the lid of the toilet and climbed up. The glass was lightly frosted, but I could just make out the dark shape and had to stifle my squeak of excitement. Undoing the hook latch, I opened the window. Snake, my crazy, undead, squirrel familiar, scurried inside and jumped right onto my chest, rubbing his little face against my neck.
“Oh, Snake. I was worried about you! I mean, I knew you’d be fine, but I didn’t know when I’d get to come find you with all of this shit going on.” He chittered away, like the good little buddy he was. “I might need to introduce you to them. I just don’t see any other way at the moment. If I don’t, you and I won’t be able to work together much, or even see each other... Plus, you’d be awesome to have with me. We’re a team, right?”
Snake’s tail fluffed, and he made a little titter of agreement. Snake couldn’t talk but I could pick up on his feelings about things. He could understand me, which was invaluable in times like these. Right now, he was just happy to see me.
“Awesome. Well, heads up, they don’t know what my powers are yet. I’m still not sure I want to tell them the full extent, so would you be offended if I told them I found you this way? Not that I brought you back?” He didn’t have a problem with that, thankfully, but I still felt the need to explain. “I’ve decided to use my abilities and magic to speak to their victims. Earlier today, I talked with a ghost who had some valuable intel. If they know what I can do, they’ll just get paranoid.”
Snake’s whole body shivered in agreement with that. He was familiar with how weird people could get when they found out about my affinity. Anything that dealt with the dead or making a connection was a priceless gift to so many people. Asrael and my other mentor, Laurie, had shown me stories of other spirit witches who’d been kidnapped and trafficked.
We made great spies for obvious reasons, but there were plenty of people out there who just couldn’t let go of someone who’d died. Knowing there was a chance you could talk to them again? It drove a lot of people to madness. It was really in my own best interest to keep it secret.
“Okay, I need to get some clothes.” I wrapped the towel around myself, and Snake took his usual spot on my shoulder. I threw open the door and stepped out, finding everyone in the kitchen. The others were eating their food, but paused when I walked in.
“What in Saturn’s balls is that?” Talon demanded, pointing at Snake.
“This is Snake. My pet squirrel. Well, it’s more than that. He’s my familiar.”
Ashland shifted, staring at Snake and then glancing at me. “Little rabbit,” he said carefully, wiping his hands on a napkin. “I hate to have to tell you this but... that squirrel is missing about forty-five percent of his skin.”
“Looks kind of dead, actually.” Felix took several steps back, clearly wanting to get as far away from us as possible. Ah, the germs thing. Snake chose that moment to hiss at Felix, clearly not appreciating the assumption that he was dead.
“Look, he’s not dead. He was sent to me like this. We don’t know what he’s been through, so let’s try to be respectful?”
“It’s a squirrel,” Talon pointed out, his brows pinched in confusion. “Do they even have feelings?”
“Well, this one does! So be nice.”
“Let me get this straight.” Felix held up a hand. “Your familiar is a skeleton squirrel who has feelings?”
I blinked. “Looks like your ears work. Any other questions?”
“I mean, is it dead? It’s gotta be dead,” Ashland stated firmly, crossing his arms. “And where the fuck did it come from? How did it get in here?”
“Ah, well, he was tapping on the window in the bathroom, and I let him in. It’s not a big deal, right? He’s a good boy, aren’t you, Snakester?” I lifted a hand and tickled the side of his neck that still had fur.
“I do not trust creatures who display their under-armor. It’s unsavory,” Talon announced, hopping up to sit on the counter.
I scoffed. “Your dick bag was practically hanging out in that little skirt you were strutting around in last night!”
Talon slowly turned his body to face me. “So you’re telling me you noticed? Fuck, I was starting to get concerned I was losing my touch, my edge, my mojo! That’s a relief. Fuuuck!” He flopped backwards, sprawling out across the workspace like a starfish.
“I don’t even know why I talk to you, honestly,” I griped, rolling my eyes.
